Family Man
by Nova Forever
Summary: Santana's the bad girl. Mike's the good guy. But now the bad girl has to meet the good guy's really Asian family.


AN: This idea came out of nowhere and then I typed word vomit out. I don't even know. Written for Nightshifted. Title from the Fleetwood Mac song 'cause I've been on a binge. Follow up to "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

* * *

"No way."

Santana opened her locker door, creating a barrier between her and the person currently on the other end of her notoriously short fuse. Unfortunately for her, it did not end the discussion as she had hoped it would.

Mike grabbed the locker door and pushed it out of the way so he could see the ex-Cheerio again.

"Yes way. Come on. This is important," he said in his typically calm voice.

"Oh I'm sorry," Santana replied. "Perhaps I didn't make it clear enough before. No. _Fucking_. Way."

"I don't see what the big deal is. It's just dinner with my family."

Santana tossed the rest of her books into her locker before shooting the tall boy a well practiced sneer.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" she said sarcastically as she slammed the locker shut and turned to face Mike. "Hi. I'm Santana, the girl you don't bring home to meet mommy dearest."

Unfortunately, Mike was used to her quips after all their weeks together and was impervious to her sarcasm. He simply quirked an eyebrow back to the angry Latina.

"Hi, I'm Mike Chang. Your _boyfriend_ who is the sort of guy who really wants to show off his _girlfriend_ to his family. Look, this is something that means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me. It would be nice if I could show that to my parents too, instead of you just sneaking in through my window constantly."

With a sigh Santana leaned into the lockers, letting Mike's kind words wash over her. They had been together for a few weeks now and Santana still wasn't used to this. To having someone in her life who actually wanted her. To having someone who felt proud to be with her. It had taken some time to get used to it.

She definitely didn't hate the feeling though.

"I like the sneaking in though. It's pretty damn hot," Santana said with a small smirk.

From the more subdued flirting, Mike knew that Santana was going to do what he had asked of her. Not that it was ever a question in the first place. He had learned soon enough that Santana enjoyed pitching her hissy fits, but a kind smile always seemed to get through to her. He would say that she was a pushover... if he wasn't so concerned that she would knock him into the cold, steel lockers for it.

"I would much rather you came in through the front door," Mike said with a calm smile as he held out his hand. "My mom would prefer it as well. I've used the 'cat really wanted to get outside' excuse a few too many times now."

Santana laced her hand with Mike's as they started down the hallway, making sure to shoot glares all around, as if to dare any of the lesser beings at the school to say anything about her mellow display of public affection.

"I certain did luck out gettin' a man with a room on the ground floor. Easy. Access."

* * *

"Ohhhh no. Oh no no. You are not seriously wearing that."

Santana looked down at her dress for the evening. It was a stunning black, strapless number that showed off the new assets her papa had bought her last summer. The hemline was high on the leg, displaying a healthy amount of her tanned and toned skin.

If Santana had to choose one word to describe how she looked right now it would have been 'fucking-hot.'

"I look fucking-hot," Santana deadpanned.

"I can see over 70% of the skin on your body!" Mike practically squeaked. "Do you even listen to me when I talk? My mom is an _Asian Mom_, Santana. Showing calf to her on our first family outing together is grounded for life material."

The Latina gave a sad look down at her dress once more. Not that she would ever say it out loud, but she did listen to Mike when he talked to her. It was this new policy she had about honestly trying to give a damn in this relationship. She knew that the dress was a risk, but the whole evening was a bit more stressful than she cared to admit. This wasn't something that she did often, or ever really. It was definitely bringing out her insecurities full force.

"You look amazing though," Mike said honestly.

Warm arms wrapped around Santana's shoulders as Mike pulled her into his chest. She couldn't help smiling into his shirt at the words she most wanted to hear.

"I'm not the type of girl you bring home to mom," Santana mumbled quietly.

Mike's arms just tightened their grip around her slim shoulders. Warmth rushed to Santana's cheeks as she felt the emotions her boyfriend seemed to be able to pour into a simple hug.

"I'm not good with parents," Santana continued. "I'm not good at this _girlfriend_ thing. I decided to just emphasize my strengths."

She felt Mike push her off his chest enough to look her in the eyes. All her muscles unclenched slightly at the warm comfort in his dark eyes. It was a look that she was still getting used to seeing, totally accepting and loving.

"You are more than just your looks, Santana. I know that. You know that. And soon my mom will know that, too."

With a final smile he popped open his car door and pulled out his red letterman jacket and dropped it onto Santana's bare shoulders.

"But just to be on the safe side, you should wear this all evening."

A warm laugh burst out of Santana as she wrapped the jacket tighter around herself and stepped into Mike's waiting car.

* * *

"No fucking way."

"You are being unreasonable," Mike whispered back into his girlfriend's ear.

"I can only say 'no fucking way' so many times tonight before it loses all sense of meaning," Santana grumbled so the others at the table wouldn't hear her.

A small head popped up to glare at her from across the table. Santana met the girl's gaze and held it until the girl bent her head down and returned to picking at the food on her plate.

"And please stop staring down my sisters," Mike semi-pleaded.

The dinner was off to bit of a rocky start, as Mike's sisters clearly had the auditory range of small dogs and could pick up every grumbled comment Santana strove to keep to herself. All three of his younger siblings had been less than thrilled with Santana's 'potty mouth.' The Latina was trying very hard to not launch across the table at them for their judging glares as Mike was continually pointing out that they were all under ten and hardly a threat to her.

"Brat had it coming," Santana grumbled as she poked at her food in disgust. "And I maintain my 'no fucking way' stance on this salad."

"It's just a salad."

Santana's head whipped to face her boyfriend's innocent stare.

"There are chicken feet in it."

"I don't see what the big deal is," Mike returned with his perfectly innocent stare.

"Brittany would never make me eat a salad with a hacked off bird foot on top of it," Santana grumbled pointedly as she leveled a glare at Mike out of the corner of her eye.

Mike did nothing but release a beaming smile back at her, glad that they were comfortable enough in their relationship that they could jokingly mention the B name in such a manner.

* * *

As Santana nervously picked around the chicken feet for the vegetables hidden underneath Mike felt his mother lean in closer to him. She gestured emphatically at his petite girlfriend before chattering away in rapid-fire Chinese, causing Santana's head to jerk up from her task to look at the two in confusion.

"She wants to know if you aren't feeling well because you aren't eating your salad. It's one of the best appetizers here," Mike cheerfully translated for her.

Santana arched her eyebrow before spearing a piece of broccoli and eating it dramatically.

"I'm feeling just peachy, Mrs. Chang! And make sure you translate the word peachy."

The Asian boy simply rolled his eyes at Santana's typical sarcasm and said something in clipped Chinese back to his mother, who leaned further around the boy to eye up Santana. The girl instantly straightened herself slightly in her chair at the inspection she was receiving. After a very drawn out moment, Mike's mother turned back to him and continued her speedy Chinese.

Santana let out a deep breath. It was nerve wracking enough to know that your boyfriend's mother was judging you on some level. To know that she was doing it while speaking at the speed of light in a language you had no hopes at understanding was just painful. Sure, she had glared at his little sisters a bit (they were annoying brats that deserved it anyway), but this was still her on her best behavior.

"Please," Santana whispered to Mike as she prodded around her plate some more. "Just tell me what she said honestly."

She glanced up from her horror show dinner to see Mike beaming his usual affectionate smile at her. Santana could feel her stomach fill up with warmth at the expression. Months of dating Mike and she still hadn't gotten over how he made her feel like she genuinely mattered to him.

"You worry too much," he said playfully with a loving elbow tap. "She actually said that maybe you would feel better if you took off my jacket as you must be sweltering in here."

Her hands flew up to tighten the letterman jacket around her shoulders. There was no way she was taking the article of clothing off tonight, not when she miraculously hadn't completely offended Mrs. Chang yet.

"It's not like I can take it off," she hissed so only Mike could hear. "Tell her I have a cold or something."

There was more rapid-fire Chinese between Mike and his mother, but the older woman clearly seemed to accept the response and started waving her hands to show that Santana should keep her son's jacket on for the rest of the meal. Santana breathed a sigh of relief at that.

Then Mrs. Chang flagged down a waiter and ordered something in Chinese, all while gesturing at Santana. The Latina looked anxiously at Mike who only offered her a sheepish grin.

"Since you are sick she is ordering you some panda hair tea."

"No. Fucking. Way."

* * *

"Is this like a family business or something? Is that why we are eating at Chang's Chinese instead of somewhere normal? Like Breadsticks?"

Mike gave her a confused look.

"Um no. My mom just likes it here."

"So I guess every Asian in Lima has the last name Chang then."

Mike shrugged before going back to his own salad, pleasantly shooting a happy smile to everyone around the table.

* * *

Mrs. Chang had not let up on her mothering over Santana's wellbeing throughout the meal. Four rounds of dim sum and three (terrible) cups of panda hair tea later, Santana was feeling full and more than a little appreciative at the concern. The only parents who had ever shown this level of interest in her were Brittany's, and they were giant hippies who cared about everything that remotely fell on a good cause list, so it wasn't nearly as flattering.

"Can you... um... tell your mom thanks and shit? I mean, I'm not really good at this sort of thing," Santana trailed off.

"At showing gratitude?" Mike joked playfully.

Santana rolled her eyes at him. This was why she rarely showed her emotional underbelly.

"Look, I just want to say thanks. For her caring. It might be nice if you made it sound nice. And left out the 'shit' part."

Mike grinned and turned to his mom, talking in their usual lightning fast Chinese. After a good minute or so, he finally stopped. Santana stopped her fidgeting and braved a glance up at Mike's mother.

She was met with a watery stare as Mrs. Chang struggled to hold back tears and smiled happily at the ex-Cheerio. Santana peeked at her boyfriend, confusion painted on her face over what he could have possibly translated to his mother as his message from her.

"I'm sure it's how you felt anyway, even if you didn't technically say it out loud," he responded with a shrug.

All three of Mike's younger sisters renewed their glares across the table, clearly picking up on the fudged translation. Santana raised her perfectly arched brow at them.

Whatever. At least one member of the Chang clan seemed to like her.

Mike beamed his smile at her again and she felt the warmth rise in her stomach for a second time.

Okay. Two members.

And that was good enough for her.

* * *

Santana slammed her locker door shut to reveal Mike casually leaned up against the wall. Her eyes drifted over him and took in his pleased expression. While she wouldn't consider dinner last night with his family a roaring success, she hadn't exactly been a total bitch, and Mike's mother had at least decided she was worthy of dating her precious little boy. Mike had been thrilled at the very least that she had finally been formally introduced to all of them. While the whole meet the parents shtick wasn't really something Santana felt the need to do, it clearly meant a lot to her boyfriend. She had promised she would give this whole real relationship thing a go, right? Whatever. It wasn't the worst thing in the world. Plus it had its winning positives for her, too.

Her trademark smirk curled on her face as she thought of how Mike had shown his appreciation to her later when she had crawled in through his window.

Life was all about the little compromises.

"You are still wearing my letterman jacket," he commented, snapping Santana out of her heated memories of last night.

The Latina bristled defensively and slung her bag over her shoulders.

"Yeah, well, I think I got a real cold from drinking all that shitty panda hair tea."

"Uh huh," Mike's grin widened. "I think you know what this means then?"

Santana simply leveled a blank stare at Mike to inform him that no, she did _not_ know what this meant.

"Well you've met my parents soooo..."

"No fucking way," Santana declared as she strode off down the hallway.

"I'm getting a little sick of that response from you," Mike said as he ran to catch up with his girlfriend.

"Yeah, well you better get used to it. You'll be hearing it a lot when you make dumb ass requests like that one."

There was a stretch of silence between them as they navigated their way in between students in the crowded hallways. Quinn raised her brow questioningly at Santana in her newly obtained letterman jacket and received a stony glare in return to shut up any potential comments. Mike simply waved at the other girl and threw his arm around Santana's shoulders.

After a few more moments of silence Santana finally hazarded a glance at the lanky boy who had his arm around her. Mike just beamed his usual smile back. Santana stopped cold in her tracks.

"Goddammit you _know_ I'm going to say yes."

"Yup."

Santana growled in anger.

"Fine! But we are going to Breadsticks and I'm going to speak obnoxiously fast in Spanish with them and we will see how you like a taste of that_novio desagradable_."

"_No hay problema_. I'm actually really great at Spanish. I even tutored Brittany in it when you would run off with Puck."

The Latina threw her hands up in the air and stormed off down the hallway, shooting him the finger over her shoulder.

"You are making this up to me later, Chang!"

"I'll leave my window unlocked tonight!" he called happily after her.


End file.
